Can we PLEASE stop having Etrigan talk in verse??
When Alan Moore first made Etrigan speak in rhyme in Swamp Thing, it was because he had been promoted to the rank of Rhymer. The implication, obviously, that it was not a permanent condition.But people seem to have forgotten about that. Despite the fact that Etrigan has been raised (and lowered) from that rank many, many times since, writers still have him speak in verse. They've made a trait that was intrinsic to the rank instead intrinsic to the character, no matter what rank he holds.
In other words, they've taken a cute, one-off idea and turned it into a permanent character trait, even though that no longer makes sense.
(Aside: if we really want to explore the idea, we could find out that other ranks in Hell include Punster, Spoonerism Guy, and Alliterationer. Of course, the question of why demons should signify themselves by speaking exclusively in certain English language literary devices is still unexplained...go ask Alan Moore)
The most important reason, though, to stop having Etrigan speak in verse, not to put too delicate a point on it, is that...
MOST OF YOUR WRITERS ARE SIMPLY NOT VERY GOOD AT WRITING VERSE.
There, I said it. I'm not naming names or pointing fingers. But the vast, vast majority of the Demon's dialogue in the past 30 years has been painful to read. The crappy doggerel that passes for Etrigan's verse is distracting as you wait for the other shoe of the rhyme to drop, it usually ruins the flow of the comic, and, well, just it plain sucks.
I can't count the number of times I've been reading a DC comic, Etrigan shows up, and I sigh deeply and have to steel myself to continue, to will myself through the turgid, tortured and terrible word balloons to follow.
So please, DC, stop. Etrigan is potentially great character in the right hands, if only you'd stop forcing writers to slavishly follow one sentence from a 30-year-old comic book that no longer applies.
Thank you for your attention.
Agreed! Many of Etrigan's rhymes are even worse than Katy Perry's.
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a job for John Byrne. Oh....wait...
ReplyDeleteOne might presume in reality
ReplyDeleteit would be hard to converse in verse
One could assume conventionality
that in truth most of etrigan's would be worse
I like the trait whether it sounds of the bard
or even just plain dog's drool
It adds to the deck of character one more card
and to discard it would be the fool
Lazarus Lupin
http://strangespanner.blogspot.com/
art and review
Thanks for proving my point, Lazarus...
ReplyDeleteI like the rhyming, but you're right, not many writers are good at portraying it. So I say, no Demon for you unless you can prove your rhyming skills.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't unlike my own pet peeve of badly translated French in comics.
I always wanted to know where that started. I picked up some old Kirby Demons a while back and noticed he wasn't rhyming in them.
ReplyDeleteI actually had a go at fixing up JMS's verse in that Brave and the Bold with Aquaman and Etrigan.
For the record, Alan Grant's Etrigan way back in his Detective Comics run was pretty good with the rhymin'.